Site Mobile Navigation

Matt Spaccarelli, an unemployed student who won a small-claims fight with AT&T over its throttling, or slowing down, of his smartphone, wants to make it easier for anyone whose smartphone was throttled to fight the carrier in court. Over the weekend, he published a Web site containing the documentation he presented to a judge on Friday, which helped him win $850.

Mr. Spaccarelli filed the court case in mid-February and went to court with AT&T on Friday in Ventura Superior Court in Simi Valley, Calif. He claimed that AT&T had reduced the Internet transfer speeds of his iPhone to the point where it was so slow that it was unusable — in other words, severely limiting his “unlimited” data plan. The judge ruled in his favor.

On his Web site, www.taporc.com, Mr. Spaccarelli lists the forms a customer needs to go to small-claims court, as well a subpoena document that someone can use to request information from AT&T. He also includes documents describing what he read to the judge, as well as information about data speeds and government policies on networks.

“I don’t want people to think this dude just got lucky,” said Mr. Spaccarelli, emphasizing the importance of doing all your research before going to court.

Mr. Spaccarelli said he used these materials to help his brother, who has also been throttled by AT&T, file a court case on Monday night. He said he would be an expert witness for his brother, and for anyone who wanted to take AT&T to small-claims court, as long as they paid for his travel expenses.

“I said, ‘I’ll file it for you because I’m your brother,’” he said. “We’ll make it two-for-two and do it in L.A. County. Different county with a different judge, same evidence.”

AT&T, T-Mobile USA and Verizon each have data throttling policies that they enforce differently on customers with unlimited data plans. They say throttling is necessary to ensure that networks remain speedy and usable for the millions of customers switching from traditional cellphones to data-guzzling smartphones.